"Jeff always watched for the first glimpse of the Professor, because he always knew he might not return. "He doesn't know much about being a father,' Melody had told him, 'so you can't expect very much from him, Jeffie."' Chapter 1, p. 20.

"She went on and on, until Jeff had a sense of family spreading out around them endlessly, and only an hour later, when she was lost in reminisces, did he understand that the names she mentioned, the people she spoke of, were most of them long ago dead. The family spread not out and around, but back, back into time. At last, she looked at him and said, 'I feel - as if I can pour myself in to you, everything I've learned, everything I know, and you will take it on into your life."' Chapter 2, p. 72.